This is a question I get asked a lot by my clients: ” I know I need to be doing more with my social media but I don’t know where to start.”

Well, first of all look at what resource you have. Small business owners are often wearing many hats and don’t have the time or expertise to spend hours creating social media content. This is where an experienced company like Gingham Cloud can step in – providing bespoke training to help you on your way or managing the whole process for you.

Gingham Cloud 9 plain talking tips to get you started

Many people are afraid to dive into social media. Kick perfectionism to the kerb and just do it already. Start small and keep going.

On which note, commit to posting regularly and actually do it. Set a reminder on your phone or look into a scheduler.

Don’t spread yourself too thin. It’s so much better to be doing brilliantly and consistently on one network than a flash in the pan on many.

Go where your customer is. No point in killing it on Snapchat if your ideal consumer is a 40 year old yummy mummy as she’s much more likely on Instagram or Facebook.

Forget what you know about traditional marketing – where social media really adds value is that it allows you to listen to your customers – not just broadcast to them.

Analytics help you measure your return on investment. But if you’re a one-man band this doesn’t need to be a big complicated metrics based spreadsheet. A notepad with numbers of followers week on week is a good place to start.

Don’t forget the call to action – make sure you end every blog, post, photo or pin making sure your customer can get back to you.

But don’t forget that it’s unlikely that you’d walk up to someone in the street and demand that they buy something from you, so don’t do it on social media.

Don’t worry too much about creating huge amounts of content yourself to start off with (though there is obviously huge value in being an expert and bringing people to your page). Instead, remember that you can share the content of others and still be informative, entertaining and fun.

Does this sound like an actionable plan? Gingham Cloud are launching evening workshops in Herts this October – get in touch to book.

Maybe you’re reading this because you’ve have had a request to support a local charity and you’re not sure whether it’s a good way to boost your marketing effort.

In terms of ROI – it really is a no-brainer. It’s a cheaper form of advertising often without actually having to spend much cash.

A Foresters survey in the UK found that 89% of consumers think businesses should support charities and their local communities.

82% said that when offered a choice between identical products or services, their purchasing decision would be affected by whether a company engaged with charities and its local community. Yes that said 82%. That’s eight out of ten cats folks.

It makes sense for a local business to choose to support a local charity both in terms of visibility and reach – local people are at local fundraisers.

Estate agents are pretty canny with this – they frequently pay to have “for sale” boards erected around a local community stating how they’re sponsoring the local fete. Great publicity for them and drives traffic to the event. Win Win.

Product based businesses can find a home for an otherwise unusable end of line item easily by offering it as a prize. Service based businesses can offer vouchers – again bearing in mind that he UK Gift Card & Voucher Association reckon that as many as ten per cent of cards expire, are forgotten about – or simply lost once won. The business still retains the kudos of having offered the prize. Plus, it’s perfectly acceptable to attach terms and conditions to a prize (e.g a restaurant donates a free meal but winners must buy drinks or a venue donates an off-peak weekday birthday party).

So, have some pretty cards printed up “kindly donated by your business with the company logo and attach to the prize. It can be as small as a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine. As they say “every little helps.” Of course if you can afford to be more generous, your charity will raise more and will of course be more grateful. And don’t forget, smaller charities massively value any corporate sponsor – you won’t just be one of many.

Budget cuts and the credit crunch have had biggest impact on local charities so your help will make a really big difference.

Plus you’ll get more bang for your buck. This is because a higher percentage of the value of your offering will go the work of the charity because local causes tend to have much lower overheads.

Of course in return for your donation (no matter how small) a chosen charity should have active accounts on social media, a decent website which can feature their donors and good relations with the local press to shout about fundraising activities.

I can’t recommend this enough. By visibly supporting local charities like this, a particular business can become synonymous with supporting the community in the minds of local people.

From a personal perspective it certainly boosted Gingham Cloud’s visibility as a fledgling business when we paid to sponsor the entertainment at a local black tie fundraiser.

Are you looking for help with your fundraising and marketing efforts? Do get in touch and we can arrange a coffee to see how we can help.

It’s all about storytelling

Janet Murray PR expert gave us tips on how to get use social media to obtain press coverage in the traditional print media. This in turn provides a business with credibility and so can make a dramatic difference in sales. Check out the hashtag #journorequest on Twitter to see if any journalists are looking to talk to someone like you. Her basic advice though? Share the story others want to hear, not the story YOU want to tell.

If you want to really capture attention, stories are where it is at, explained Snapchat specialist Sumaiya Omar. She provided a very powerful (if hard to watch) demonstration of the impact of how video and stories can provide insight that doesn’t come from any other medium by showing us footage from Rania Ibrham’s harrowing video as she and her neighbours tried to flee the fire on the 23rd floor of Grenfell Tower. She also advised that video is super easy to repurpose if you shoot with Snapchat’s spectacles so watch this space on that.

Video video video

We all keep reading how important it is to go live and yet we’re all embarrassed to put ourselves out there. This week I felt the fear and did it anyway, thanks the charismatic Garry aka The Optician Social Media Guy. I learnt that actually I’m probably better off doing an interview based format. But the real top tip on going live came from SuperPeriscoper and serial live broadcaster MrASingh. Think about your content first. Don’t worry about how many followers or viewers you have when you’re live. If you’re going to feel dejected and depressed by seeing how few people are watching, put a post-it note or some blu-tac over the viewer numbers. This allows you to just focus on offering something interesting for people. (Often many people view later rather than live anyway, so this really is great advice to concentrate on adding value with what you’re actually saying.

Twitter handle embroidered on shirt cuffs. Love this.

It’s not enough to be liked.

The keynote from the super energetic founder of Youpreneur Chris Ducker claimed that it’s not enough to be liked – you have to be people’s favourite. He also reminded us how important it is to avoid being distracted by shiny things.
His secret? FOCUS – Follow One Course Until Success

Follow One Course Until Success – FOCUS

Twitter’s Bruce Daisley gave us a few key stats on the microblogging platform. Twitter now describes itself as a news app. Users go on to Twitter with a discovery mindset and this means that they are more attentive, responsive and more trusting than on other platforms. This can easily be summed up in this cartoon.

Virtual Reality specialist Sarah Jones was saying that the beauty of a VR is that it’s an immersive experience and so its stories are much deeper. The fact that you’re in a headset means that you can’t be “second screening”. That’s the technical term for what we all do, with one eye on House of Cards, and the other on your weekend plans in your WhatsApp groups. It’s this focus that makes VR valuable and exciting.

Victoria Taylor from UntwistedSocial Media is all about the bubbles. Not prosecco -though I think she likes that, too!. But using the DM facility on Instagram and FB messenger to get in touch with people. All part of the know/like/trust cycle which ultimately drives sales.

Speaker of the day for me, by far, was the irrepressible Growth Hacker Vin Clancy who just shared so much value, it’s going to be a blog post all of its own. Watch this space for more.

So the truth has come out – it turns out that Bryan Cullinan, PwC partner in charge of envelopes at the Oscars (R) was responsible for the mix up over Best Picture and it was he who managed to hand over the wrong envelope to Hollywood legends Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty.

Throughout the run up to the event evening, he had tweeted including with throwback photos of last year’s photobombs on the red carpet using the PwC hashtag.

And just moments before Beatty hesitated, re-checked the envelope and then rather unchivalrously allowed Dunaway to spill the wrong beans, Cullinan tweeted an exclusive backstage shot of Emma Stone with her statuette….

BUT perhaps this is the problem – perhaps the multitasking and pressure to get as much out of the event in terms of social media output was his downfall.

So I’m sharing my three super easy strategies to making the most of a BIG trending event without landing yourself in hot water

1 Think ahead of time about what you want to achieve – do you really want or need your own trending hashtag? In PwC’s case they are seen as a boring accountancy firm and this was their chance to shine and glitter and showcase that they do other things outside of audit. BUT with the best will of the world, nobody (outside of other employees at the firm) was using the #pwc hashtag on Oscar night. (until it all went wrong)

2 Of course use your phone for pics and videos – of course but remember, you can showcase exclusive behind the scenes stuff AFTER the event and still take advantage of trending hashtags – be sure to plan to leave time to pull together a best bits blogpost at the end of an event.

3 Finally, make sure that you focus on the task at hand. Of course, it’s helpful to document what you’re doing but the key component is be present for the people around you. This way you can give all your attention to the real reason you’re at the event.

If you’re looking for help with your social media strategy, do get in touch.

This week, I’ve mainly been preparing for my presentation at the Second Academic Archers conference which will be held this weekend at the University of Lincoln.

This is my full abstract.

Communications specialist Olivia Vandyk will illustrate how social media can help rural business.

The presentation studies known online activity in Ambridge. It will highlight the perceived and potential social media practices of a variety of residents to give an example of what can be achieved, touching on the various networks and technology that can enhance the personal and professional lives of all, whether poultry smallholder or publican.

While the focus is mainly on commercial case studies including The Ambridge Tearoom; the session will provide valuable insight to anyone with a smartphone.

The conclusion that social media can help foster feelings of community suggests that the Borsetshire populace should take immediate measures to advance their online activities.

In its research I found a huge amount of social media statistics, particularly pertaining to rural businesses, so I thought I’d give a sneak peek in advance of the conference.

The Mum Economy, for example, added £7.2bn to the UK’s coffers in 2014, supporting over 204,000 -many of them digital entrepreneurs.

Two thirds of the UKs population now own a smartphone.

80% of all UK adults are using the internet every day.

37% of UK people check social media “several times” a day.

I did find a cracking stat, that some people are checking Facebook up to twenty times a day but I just couldn’t verify it anywhere and so didn’t use it. I may conduct my own research into this.

A 2010 study found that interacting directly (tagging a photo or writing on a wall) with friends on Facebook increased feelings of wellbeing and sociability.

A study by Sociologist Nicholas Christakis states that social networks offer benefits, not just for us as individuals in the network, but for the community as a whole. They can apparently: – Foster trust and reciprocity, Facilitate the flow of altruism and generosity, Contribute to lower crime rates, Promote better public health and indeed Support reduced political corruption. That’s a huge list of benefits.

When people ask me what I do, I tell them I run my own company and that I”m a communications specialist — it’s sort of PR (darling).

Fundamentally I’m a people person — I’m compassionate and curious about other people’s lives — it’s why I initally went into magazine journalism. When I was approached over a decade ago by Justine Roberts, CBE and Carrie Longton, to help with their venture mumsnet.com I didn’t know anything about parenting other than being quite an enthusiastic aunt to seven nieces and nephews.

Since then, I have served as a community manager on the boards of Mumsnet helping make parents’ lives easier on a huge variety of topics that affect women on all levels from breastfeeding to Brexit. It’s a cross between being an air traffic controller and Chloe from CTU. I’ve had four children of my own and now know more about Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig than any adult not involved in the production company ever should.

Managing a community is about making sure that you’re always honest, transparent and empathetic to the concerns of the people in your tribe. Mumsnetters generally like it when I’m around because I understand what they’re going through — I’ve been there too. But even if that’s not the case, it’s important to look at your clients and look at where their pain points are and see how you can help.

What can you do to help your community of existing and potential clients? How can you make them crave what you do? Perhaps you can bring them value? In the case of Mumsnet, that value comes in failsafe parenting tips from people who’ve been there, done that, and got the stained t-shirt and the online companionship in doing so — knowing that there are other mothers out there who don’t know what heck to cook for supper again!

In the case of a consultancy business you can be sure to put yourself top of their call list by ensuring that you’re looking at upcoming events and being ahead of the game — and bringing them something that your competitors aren’t.

This is the best way to make people know, trust, and ultimately buy from you.

The ingenious invention of a PR team trying to sell holidays back in 2005, the apparent formula for Blue Monday links to the number of days since pay day, the likelihood of falling off the wagon of any New Year’s Resolutions and the dreary weather plus the supposedly most depressing day of the week.

And, lo, it has become a fixture in the editorial calendar.

So, should you pay any attention to fixed days like this? PR guru Janet Murray is wise in her advice to beware awareness days as when seeking a hook for journalists, it’s often not enough.

But for a marketing plan or as an opportunity to jump on a trending hashtag, it’s folly to ignore what people will be discussing anyway.

As long as you ensure your content educates and entertains and is consistent, then you’ll be on to a winner.

As for being the most depressing day of the year? I say get up; get coffee; get on with it.

If you’d like to meet for coffee to discuss how to keep your content relevant please get in touch.

It’s Hallowe’en so we’re treating you to nine quick “tricks” to help up your social media game.Biographies – we’re all guilty of this. Branding strategist Phil Pallen says this is the one thing that can make or break whether someone follows you. Do ensure your Twitter/Insta/Facebook bios are really the best they can be (and update that linkinbio on your Insta already!)

Stronger Together If you’ve not got a Facebook group going on yet, you need to – with the organic reach of business pages continuing its decline, the advantages of groups are showing real returns, especially as members can opt in to receive notifications of activities.

Images. Again.

We say this time and time again – a picture paints a thousand words but more importantly improves your engagement. By adding images to your social media you can increase engagement by 120%. On LinkedIn, links with Videos typically result in a 75 percent higher rate share and links with images result in a 98 percent higher comment rate.

Gifs – wooo okay! It’s true – Gifs are always fun and good for a quick RT on Twitter.

Ask, nicely and it works.
Use the right words to improve engagement: Buddy Media found that action keywords like “post,” “comment,” “take,” “submit,” “like” or “tell us” are the most effective.

Timing is all
All the analysis points to Facebook traffic peaking between the hours of 1pm and 3pm.

Little and often. Make fan/follower management as much a part of your daily routine as posting content — this is a good way to build your brand.

Words and Pictures

If in doubt, try an infographic – this extract from a brilliant but HUGE one from MyCleverAgency illustrates the perfect post on most networks.